1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns an assembly including a tap and a protective cap, and a bottle including such an assembly.
2. Related Art
The invention concerns more particularly an assembly including a tap for controlling fluid under pressure and a protective cap mounted around said tap, the tap including a body having a vertical axis and an internal fluid distribution circuit between an inlet adapted to be connected to a fluid source such as a bottle and a fluid outlet, at least one element for controlling the flow of fluid situated in the internal circuit and at least one handling member that includes a lever pivotably connected to the body of the tap and manually operable by an operator between at least a first or rest position adjacent to the body of the tap and a second or active position shifted by a non-zero angle relative to the body of the tap, the cap defining an inner protective space for the tap and being provided with at least one first lateral opening that enables movement of the lever between the first and second positions, the lever in the second position thereof intersecting the plane of the first opening and optionally projecting beyond the volume of the cap.
The invention notably concerns a system for delivering gas from a bottle, in particular a bottle of small volume (10 liters of geometrical volume containing gas compressed to 150 to 300 bar, for example).
The invention applies notably to bottles provided with a tap easily connectable to pressure regulators of various types and (the tap) providing an emergency stop (or at least quick stop) function for stopping dispensing the gas and giving a visible indication as to the “on” or “off” state of the tap.
One such tap is described for example in the documents FR-A1-2828922 and FR-A1-2793297 (the invention may be applied to any other type of tap and is in no way limited to the examples described in the above documents).
Thus the invention also concerns a protective cap, preferably of composite material, having an opening enabling manipulation of a lever for operating the tap, the tap nevertheless being sufficiently encompassing to protect the tap in the event of the bottle falling over, for example.
A tap having at least one lever possibly projecting out of the protection volume provided by the cap offers better visibility and better maneuverability for an operator. However, in this case there is a risk of impact and of breakage, notably in the event of the combination falling over. The document EP 747 796 describes such an assembly in which the cap is mounted on the bottle in a particular fixed indexed angular position relative to the tap.
In some applications it is preferable to provide a cap that turns relative to the tap and to the bottle, to offer the user some freedom and to facilitate installation, maintenance and connection to the tap. In the position of use a rotary tap is mounted “idle” i.e. free to rotate relative to the combination of the tap and the bottle. In other words the user can chose the angular position of the cap (turn it) without having to demount it (it is nevertheless still locked against movement in translation).
A rotary cap is notably advantageous when installing the tap on the bottle because it necessitates no angular indexing between the tap and the cap. Being able to orient the (rotary) cap relative to the fixed tap also increases convenience in use, for example for connecting to a pressure regulator or a hose. Finally, to verify the state of the tap and/or to maintain it, being able to turn the cap makes it possible to examine the tap and its connection to the bottle from all angles and facilitates intervention.
With a rotary cap there is a risk of collision between the cap and the lever when transporting the bottle or if it falls over, for example.
One possible solution is to limit the rotation of the cap by stops and/or to reinforce the lever and/or to provide for the remaining part of the broken lever to be of sufficient size for the tap to be operated anyway.
These solutions are nevertheless complex or costly or limit the ergonomics and use of the corresponding bottles.